The contract extension was rejected by 66 percent of the pilots who cast votes, the Allied Pilots Association said late Wednesday. About 8,200 of the union's 10,500 pilots voted.

The rejection will have little immediate impact on the airline's operations or on travelers, American officials had said before results of the vote were known. The current contract will remain in effect.

In July, union leaders and airline negotiators announced a tentative deal to extend the current contract through August 2002. But the deal might have been doomed when pilots at United Airlines, the nation's largest carrier, reached a richer contract over the summer.

The American pilots have said they would seek to match the United deal in new contract talks, which are now likely to begin in late spring or early summer next year.